Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines (John Geleynse)
Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines (John Geleynse)
- Subject: Re: Mac OS X 10.1 File Name Extension Guidelines (John Geleynse)
- From: "Neal A. Crocker" <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 23:16:29 -0700
The whole thing seems sensible and well thought out, but, off the top
of my head, I can see where the following file saving behavior might
cause a problem:
There are three scenarios to consider when the user is saving a file:
<snip>
3. The user types a file name with a known, incorrect extension.
The Save dialog displays an alert warning the user that they can not save
the file with the incorrect extension, and indicates what the correct
extension is. The dialog gives the user the choice of saving the file with
the correct extension, saving the file with both extensions, or canceling
the operation.
For example, if a user tries to save a TextEdit document as "MyFile.jpg",
the alert reads, "You cannot save this document with the extension '.jpg' at
the end of the name. The required extension is '.rtf'. You can choose to use
both, so that your file name ends in '.jpg.rtf'." The buttons are Use .rtf,
Cancel, and Use both. ".rtf" is the correct extension for this document as
set by TextEdit, and Use .rtf is the default button. In no case will the
system hide an extension if doing so would make the file appear to have a
different, valid extension. Therefore, if the user choosed "Use both", the
Finder will display the full saved filename, "MyFile.jpg.rtf".
Suppose files of a certain type encode information in printable
characters but are not normally treated as text files. If some savvy
individual knows how the info is encoded in this type of file and
wants to use a text editor (not "word processor") such as BBEdit to
alter the contents of the file, they may find themselves forbidden to
save the file using its original extension (which, as far as they are
concerned, is still appropriate). If I read correctly, they can set
the desired file extension manually in Finder, although they may have
to deal with warnings about changing the extension inappropriately.
However, this would probably not be sufficient to salve their
frustration at not being able to save the text they just edited with
a file extension the they KNOW is appropriate.
Neal.